All The Stories We Made
by Princess Jaquline Chess
Summary: It's been the Mr. Rogers Club versus the House of Stark since seventh grade, but Steve and his gaggle of friends might need to come together so they can save a member of the House of Stark from a fate they know far too well. Natasha needs help - and they are determined to get her some.
1. Chapter 1

**Trigger Warnings: Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Seen Parental Neglect, and Implied Hunger**

* * *

 **Chapter 1 –** ** _Natasha, Steve, and the Great Lunch Catastrophe_**

Loki's phone buzzed on the table next to Natasha. This wasn't anything out of the usual as several of her classmates were often checking their phones non-stop throughout the day. What surprised the red-head was the way her lab partner almost pounced to retrieve the black cased phone.

Natasha jumped away from the sudden movement and looked up from her chemistry notebook. Loki sent the girl a glance before looking back down at his phone intently. Natasha rolled her eyes and picked up her pen again and continued with her casual ignoring of the raven-haired boy beside her.

She shot a glance over to where her friends Jane and Maria sat working on their own worksheets and felt a seed of jealousy. If she hadn't of been running late to class on the first she might have been able to find a seat next to them instead of being stuck here with the resident school outsider. Loki was far too annoying and condescending for her taste, for anyone's taste really. That's why he had been the only seat available when she had come in that day.

She heard a snort next to her and she once again turned her glance toward Loki. He was still staring down at his phone but now had a smile instead of his routine frown. Sensing her eyes on him, Loki's frown returned, and he looked at her from the corner of his eye.

"Do you wish to say something?" he asked, his tone harsh. Natasha blinked once in surprise and turned away her head. She hadn't thought he had noticed her watching him.

"Oh, um, no," Natasha fumbled, very embarrassed to having been caught staring at him. Loki scoffed and went back to his phone and hurriedly began typing something on the screen.

"What are you doing?" Natasha ventured. Loki sighed once deeply and put the phone down.

"I thought you didn't want to talk," he said. Natasha shrugged and leaned forward onto the black topped table.

"It's just one question," she said. "You just seemed – what's the word? – out of character. Call me curious."

Loki seemed to contemplate telling her for a moment before he eventually just once again rolled his eyes and returned to his worksheet. Natasha took that as a sign she was not going to get an answer for his strange behavior. Natasha briefly looked up at the other rows before returning to her paper. Two rows ahead she saw two brunettes looking at her darkly, both with brown eyes and deep scowls directed at her.

Natasha looked back at them for a second, sending back a scowl of her own, before the duo returned to their work. Natasha wasn't sure what that was about but felt as if it was something personal. She shook her head and picked up her pen to continue and worked in silence for the rest of the period.

She felt the gazes of the brunette's return to her several more times but fought the urge to squirm under their stare. It happened with recurring frequency as the lead up to the bell and Natasha found it harder and harder to just simply shrug them off.

The bell rang as a signal for the end of class and Natasha moved to place her things in her bag. Before she could even get her binder in her bag the Brunette Duo were at her and Loki's table.

They immediately crossed over to the side where Loki was, for the first time in the past few minutes pointedly ignoring Natasha. Natasha kept her gaze down on her bag but couldn't help but here what they were saying. Why were they talking with Loki? Last time she checked no one liked him.

"How's she doing?" said the brunette wearing a beanie. Up close, Natasha could see physical differences between the two girls. The one who had spoken was tall and slender, her hair up in a beanie and glasses perched on the edge of her nose and her hair pulled into a curly ponytail at the base of her neck. The second was short and had hair down to her legs, her clothing more flowy and dressy then the jeans and ironic t-shirt of her counterpart.

"Okay," Loki said. The small one shot a glance over to Natasha, her gaze returning.

"Was she giving you any trouble?" the little one asked. Natasha snapped up at that comment and sent the girls a glare. Loki sent a quick glance at Natasha before shaking his head.

"No, she was just curious. Come on," Loki said motioning with her head towards the door. The two girls gave her one last look before following Loki and Natasha couldn't help but feel she had witnessed something very strange. Natasha shivered once and hurried over to where Jane and Maria were waiting for her.

Maria, her hair pulled up into a bun as always, looked after where they had gone as they walked into the hallway.

"What was that about?" she asked. Natasha shrugged and pulled her bag higher up on her shoulder. Loki and the behavior of those two girls was strange to the letter. Loki talking to anybody was already high enough on the weirdness scale, not to mention two girls had sook him out for conversation.

"Couldn't tell you," she replied. Jane gave a slight huff and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Just as well, Loki is weird enough as is," Jane said. Although Natasha would admit that she agreed with her friend's sentiment, she couldn't help but think perhaps Jane was a bit biased toward the raven-haired boy. Jane was dating Loki's half-brother Thor and him and Thor never got along to begin with. Jane would of course find Loki annoying just on principal.

"Tell me about it," Maria said, flicking an imaginary strand of hair out of her eyes. "One time I just asked him how his day was, and he answered with some meta-physical bullshit about the universe and philosophical questions about if anyone was ever fine."

"Alright, enough about Loki," Natasha said as they arrived at the door of the lunchroom. "Time to talk about something that matters."

"What? The implications of political pressure on social issues?" Jane asked. Natasha sighed at her friend and threw an arm around the tanned brunette's shoulder. Jane was always jumping to science and political issues as topics for conversations. Sometimes Natasha swore she was friends with a thirty-year old in a sixteen-year-old girl's body, especially because Jane was almost always talking and going on about plans for the future.

"No," Natasha said. "I was going to say Taco Tuesday." Natasha motioned to the poser on the wall and Jane rolled her eyes while Maria just laughed. Maria pushed open the door to reveal the madhouse that was Lee Kirby High's cafeteria. The three girls scowered the lunchroom for a second as they looked for their table of friends and quickly found them in a large round table by a window. Natasha quickly found them due to finding the tall blonde head of Thor, given that he was a good foot taller than most kids at school.

The three waved in their direction to let them know that they had arrived and after several minutes of looking like idiots, one Tony Stark finally got sight of them and waved back as an acknowledgment of their presence. The three – secure with the fact that they now had a place to sit after obtaining lunch – went into the line for food.

Natasha watched the kids leave the line with some sense of disgust. The food didn't look all that appetizing and was clearly giving off the funky smell permeating the large white room. Jane and Maria also crinkled their noses and shared a glance at the food.

"Okay, tomorrow, I am officially bringing my lunch," Maria declared. Natasha rolled her eyes and reached for a tray.

"Mar, you say that every day," Natasha said as something passing for a taco was shoved onto her plate.

"Well, I mean it today," she insisted.

"You said that yesterday," Jane pointed out cheekily as they paid for the food. Maria sighed dramatically as they made their way towards their friends.

"Why am I friends with you again?" Maria lamented teasingly.

"Lack of better options?" Natasha suggested. Maria rolled her eyes.

Natasha passed by the Brunette Dou on the way to her table, surprised to see them sitting with Loki. In fact, she was surprised to see Loki at lunch at all. He almost always off somewhere else to eat or just skipped eating all together and hung out in the parking lot, or at least that's what Natasha assumed. But today he was seating with a large group of people consisting of the brunette girls, a boy with platinum blonde hair, and a muscular boy with shoulder length brown hair.

"Did she say anything else?" the platinum haired boy said. Loki shook his head and picked up his phone again and read over it.

"Nothing important. She did say something about crying about a bunny and a fox," he said, his lips forming a fond smile.

Natasha couldn't help but feel a seed of curiosity grow at the identity of this "she" they were talking about. She didn't get to dwell on this for very long because they passed before they could hear anymore. She made her way to the table where her friends sat and took a seat next to Pepper, Tony's girlfriend and Natasha's fellow redhead.

Pepper gave only a small inclination that she knew that Natasha had sat down next to her, a quiet hey and glance in her direction being the only indicators that Pepper gave. Pepper was currently writing furiously on the papers before her – most likely a speech for Debate Club or instructions for her many lab reports. Pepper was in like a gazillion classes and always seemed to be working on something for them.

"Natashlie!" Tony said with a smile, looking over his girlfriend's bowed head. Natasha grit her teeth and took a bite of her food.

"Can you stop calling me that?" Natasha requested harshly. Tony had taken to calling her a strange mix between her name and the Americanized version of her name, Natalie, way back when in middle school and Natasha had attempted to go by the name for a while. The attempt to launch it as a nickname had failed and she had quickly returned to her given name. Tony, however, refused to let it go.

"Come on, Nat," Thor said, leaning back in his chair. "He's just having a bit of fun."

"They say fun is important for social development, after all," Vision interjected. Vision was a strange person indeed, always interjecting factual evidence into everything. That's how he had garnered the nickname Vision when he arrived at the beginning of the school year. He seemed to know and see everything one would need to conceivably know.

"See!" Tony said, pointing to the dark-skinned boy with a triumphant smile. Maria slapped away Tony's hand, as his pointing had resulted in his hand stretching across the length of her plate.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you pointing is rude?" Maria said, moving the food around her plate with her fork. Natasha watched this for a moment before taking a slow bite of her own food, feeling a small seed of jealousy grow in her even if she knew Maria was not the one to blame for the anger she was feeling.

"She did, but I felt the need to, so I could make my point," Tony said with a matter of fact tone. Thor gave a laugh far louder than the joke was funny. Jane rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's boisterous laugh and reached to lace his hand through his.

"Thor, honey, it wasn't that funny," Jane said with a slight laugh of her own.

"You can bust a rhyme anytime, can't you Jane?" Maria said with a slight eyebrow wiggle, and that caused the whole table to erupt with laughter.

Natasha's mood soon soured when she felt a hot substance suddenly fall on her. Natasha shrieked once and stood angrily, attempting to shake off whatever it was that had fallen on her. Several of her friends stood in the shocking moment of action and Natasha looked down to see herself covered in applesauce and taco meat. She glared and turned around to see a tall, muscular boy standing behind her. A tray sat at his feet and an astounded expression on his face. It wasn't hard to put the pieces together.

"I'm s _o_ sorry -" he started, before being cut off.

"Well, why don't you watch where you're going," Tony shot back, glaring at the boy nearly a foot and a half his senior. Natasha looked over at Tony harshly and wiped some of the mess off her bare arms. After the initial moment of shock had wore off some, she could tell it was just a genuine accident. She didn't understand why he was getting so upset. The boy looked at Natasha again.

"I really am sorry, is there anything I can do?" he asked, reaching for a few napkins on the table to help clean her up. Maria clapped her hand down around the white napkins and glared at the boy even harsher than Tony had. The blonde looked at Maria helplessly for a second before he backed away his hand.

"No, really, it's fine –" she started.

"Is there a problem here?"

From behind the blonde appeared the Brunette Duo, the long-haired boy, the platinum boy, and Loki. All of them glared at the collective, and Natasha's friends glared back. The blonde boy just looked helpless, however, and stared at Natasha with wide eyes.

"Loki," Thor said tightly, narrowing his eyes at his half-brother. Loki didn't respond much better, only give a courteous nod in the long-haired blonde's direction.

"Thor," Loki responded. Tony stepped forward in front of Natasha and sent daggers at the small group surrounding the tall short-haired blonde.

"The only problem here is that your man here dumped his lunch on Natasha!" Tony said. Pepper reached over to take his hand, so she could calm him down some.

"Tony –"

Tony recoiled back from her hand and Pepper brought it up to her chest. She opened her mouth to say something but eventually just shut it back. She lowered her hand back down to her side and retook her seat and stared at Tony with wide and concerned eyes.

The long-haired boy scoffed and crossed his arms.

"Your man?" he asked, contempt and frivolity mixing together in his voice. "Okay, one, socs, calm down there. Ponyboy isn't due for another hour. And secondly, anyone with half a brain can tell what happened here was an accident."

"Likely story, Barnes," Tony said shortly and suddenly why Tony was being so hostile to them clicked. That brown-haired boy was Bucky Barnes and the blonde was Steve Rogers. As in Tony's public enemy number one Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. When they had broken for summer vacation they had been smaller, and less muscle defined. She hadn't recognized them now that they were taller and stronger.

"What would Steve have to gain from dumping what the school passes off as tacos onto Natasha?" The taller member of the Brunette Duo said. Maria, still holding a death grip onto the stack of napkins, scoffed.

"Why don't you tell us?" Maria sneered.

"You guys are just looking for a reason to hate us, aren't you?" the platinum boy asked in frustration. Even though Natasha now recognized Steve and Bucky, she couldn't place a name to the Brunette Duo or to the platinum haired boy.

"Guys, come on, calm down –" Steve started to say, before the short brunette stepped in front of him to effectively cut him off.

"Simple, they hate us because we exist," Loki answered for them. Loki and Thor locked eyes for a moment and the tension only grew. Anyone with half a brain knew that there must have been a double meaning behind Loki's words. Loki was the bastard son of Odin, Thor's father, and Odin was none too happy to even know Loki even lived. No one knew for sure where Loki lived or what his home life was, all anyone knew was that Loki did not live with his brother or father.

The tension nearly exploded when Natasha jumped into action. She slipped the napkins away from Maria and turned to the kids in front of her, plastering on a fake but sweet smile.

"It's okay, really," she said. "It was just an accident after all." Steve blinked at her several times, in shock that she had believed him. She wiped some of the goop off her arms and ran a hand through her hair to make sure no chunks had landed in her short scarlet curls.

"Let me help you," Steve said. He reached down and picked up the plate and tray, collecting all the garbage onto the red plastic tray. The groups continued staring at each other for several moments before slowly they started to look away. Jane and Maria soon walked over and began helping her wipe off the junk and lessen the stains they would leave. James and the short brunette moved to help Steve clean up. Tony and Pepper moved to sit back down again, and the platinum boy and tall brunette girl slowly lowered their defensive stances.

Thor and Loki, however, kept staring at each other through the whole ordeal. It seemed both were in a battle and whoever turned away first would be the loser.

After they had finished wiping off Natasha and Steve had cleaned up the mess, they once again stared both awkwardly and harshly at the same time. Whatever spell was pulling the two groups into conflict broke, however, when Loki's phone buzzed in his hand.

Loki finally broke his gaze away from Thor's and raised his phone to eye-level. Natasha couldn't help but notice the smug smirk that broke across Thor's face at the fact that Loki had turned away first. Loki's face broke out into concern and he turned to what Natasha had surmised was his friends.

"I need to take this," he said quickly. Bucky nodded, and Loki turned on his heel towards where the door to the field by the school was, sliding his hand across the phone to answer the phone call.

"Hey sweetheart –" he said, but Natasha couldn't hear the rest because he was out of earshot. Natasha was surprised by the use of the term sweetheart. As far as Natasha knew, Loki was so aloof and antisocial that he wouldn't get close enough to someone to ever call them "sweetheart", no matter what the context was.

"I'm so sorry," Steve reiterated again, looking at Natasha intently. Natasha opened her mouth to say that it was okay but Tony beat her to the punch.

"Yeah, you said that," Tony butted in. Steve looked at Tony with a hurt expression for the briefest of moments before shaking his head and looking away. Just like when Loki had spoken, Natasha couldn't help but feel that perhaps that Tony was speaking about more than just this situation. No one was sure what went down between Steve, Bucky, and Tony, just that one-day Tony started hating them. He refused to talk about with anyone, even Pepper was only left with a vague understanding.

Steve moved to reach out to her (or Tony, she couldn't really be sure), but pulled away and looked down at the garbage on his plate with a frown.

"I really am sorry," he said. Again, Natasha wasn't sure if the gesture was to her or to Tony.

He turned away from them, his group of friends following soon after. Natasha watched them for a moment before sitting back down in her chair. Natasha hardly noticed when Jane started to talk about some assignment due in math class to return to light conversation. Natasha couldn't shake what just happened to, and not just because a few stains littered her gray sweater.

That was more intense than it should have been. It should have been a few angry shouts, an apology, and then she would have calmed down and helped him clean up the mess. That's how it would have been, if it hadn't of been Steve Rogers that had accidently dropped the tray. Instead it turned to a full-on stand-off that had no business being this insane.

Natasha ate her lunch in silence, being far too smart to waste her meal because this had upset her, but didn't interact with any of her friends. Jane too seemed rather shaken by the whole ordeal but didn't let it show all that much, attempting a lackluster conversation that she forced her sour boyfriend to take part in before his mood could settle for the rest of the day.

Eventually the bell rang, and Natasha got up, hurrying to her next class with a couple of goodbyes. She passed the table where she had seen Loki sitting at earlier and found it populated by the same people plus Steve, Loki having returned from the phone call he had taken. All of them looked up at her as she passed, their looks filled with anger and a little bit of disgust. Except Steve, who looked at her apologetically.

She wasn't sure which one she detested more.

* * *

Steve Rogers did not want to walk home today.

He had nothing against walking home on average days and he hadn't expected his friends/ride to stick around for an extra hour because of an Art Club meeting. What he was against was the fact that it was raining, and he had to carry a sketch home, which was destined to get wet even in his backpack.

He raised his umbrella over his head and contemplated calling Bucky to come pick him up but decided against it. His house was only fifteen minutes away and if he power walked he was sure he could get there in ten.

This assumption turned out to be correct as he made it to his house at just over twelve minutes, his backpack wet on the outside and he knew that a few of the papers at least had some form of water damage. He hoped one of them wasn't his newest sketch.

He unlocked the door and walked in, wiping his feet on the mat. He knew that if he didn't, his mom would have his head. He threw his backpack down with the small array of bags currently situated by the front door and made his way into the house.

He was met by Bucky walking into the entry way, keys in his hand.

"Oh, hey, Steve, I was just coming to get you!" he said cheerily. Steve rolled his eyes and looked down at his best friend's shoeless feet that were currently only adorned by the bright pink socks he had probably borrowed off Darcy.

"With no shoes or a jacket?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Bucky rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and walked with Steve into the living room.

"Why am I friends with you again?" Steve asked. Bucky smiled.

"Lack of better options."

Steve rolled his eyes and made his way to the stairs, climbing up to enter the Girl's Room. The Girl's Room where they spent most of their days, especially considering that it was the largest one where they could all meet privately.

Steve entered the room and was meet by an explosion of color and sound. Three beds were shoved into the corners of the room, the fourth corner occupied by a desk. Scarves and curtains laced the ceilings and lamps were scattered across many of the tables. Posters littered the walls, some of Hollywood heart throbs (Darcy), first edition book covers (Wanda), and animated characters (Anine).

Darcy sat at the desk chair, her legs crossed beneath her. Bucky walked in after Steve and took a seat on the floor directly beneath that of Darcy and leaned against one of the chair's legs. Wanda sat on her bed as she read a book, her twin brother Pietro splayed dramatically across the comforter. Anine was propped up in her own bed, Loki sitting in a chair directly next to her, a hand laced through hers. Sam was sitting amongst the many movie titles splayed amongst the floor and seemed to be searching through them. Fitz and Simmons were on Darcy's bed, sitting far too close than friends normally do.

"All I'm saying is that a zebra would beat a shark in a fight," Darcy said with a shrug. Pietro sat up just slightly from where he was and looked at Darcy with an "are you kidding me?" look.

"A zebra would not beat a shark in a fight," Pietro said. "First of all, sharks have like a gazillion teeth."

"Gazillion is not a real number," Simmons said from her spot on Darcy's bed. "And I agree with Darcy anyway. A zebra could beat a shark, as long as it's on land."

"But what if it's not on land?" Sam asked, not looking up from the movie cases. "If a zebra and a shark were to fight in the water, the shark would be the clear winner."

"The real question is why are they fighting in the first place?" Fitz said. "Why don't they try peacefully working out their problems?"

"Because that is not the fucking question, Fitz," Darcy said. Steve rolled his eyes and took a seat in the chair by the door.

"Language, Lewis," he chastised half-heartedly. Darcy looked at Steve with a deadpan expression.

"English, Rogers," she said cheekily. Steve gave a slight chuckle and leaned back in his chair.

"Why are you guys talking about zebras and sharks?" Steve asked. Wanda put down her book momentarily, her expression none too pleased by her friends and roommates.

"Because they want to annoy the living shit out of me," Wanda said, an annoyed tone clear. Pietro smiled up at his sister.

"What are big brother's for?" Pietro asked. Wanda sighed a labored sigh and reached over to her brother and slapped him across the back of his head.

"Ow!" Pietro said, rubbing the spot where his sister had hit him. "You hit me!"

"What are little sisters for?" Wanda asked, using the same teasing tone Pietro had just used. Pietro scowled but everybody else just smiled at the exchange. Pietro was always getting on Wanda about technically being older than Wanda by about seven minutes and Wanda always returned that in kind with a slap or biting remark. It usually ended in pain for Pietro and much amusement for everybody else in their group.

"It was actually because we were talking about the movie I watched today," Anine said. "I said I watched _Zootopia_ and it kind of devolved into this."

"Speaking of which, how are you feeling?" Steve asked. Anine rolled her eyes and leaned her head on Loki's shoulder, who was sitting mostly silently and picking with a thread on the side of Anine's quilt.

"Seriously guys, it was the stomach flu, not the plague," Anine said. "You guys acted like I was dying all day long." Loki placed a kiss on top of her hair with a fond smile.

"We were just worried," Loki said. Anine didn't say anything and instead just looked out at the room with a slight teasing glint in her eyes.

"I know," she said. "But still, I would like to know how school went."

"You know, math, science, near fight with Tony and the House of Stark, it was Taco Tuesday –" Darcy started to list off before Anine shot up in her bed with wide eyes. She turned to Loki expectantly and Steve saw him cringe just the slightest under his gaze. Anine had the amazing superhero of being the only member of their friend/family, besides Steve's mom Sarah, that could get Loki to squirm.

"LOKI!" she yelled. Loki looked at his girlfriend sheepishly and pulled away only slightly.

"You can't really blame Loki for what went down," Pietro interjected. "It kind of all started when Steve accidently dropped his plate on Natasha Romanoff at lunch today." Steve cringed at the memory and straightened up in his seat.

It had taken nearly an hour after the events at lunch today to truly shake off what had happened. He truly hadn't meant to drop his lunch on the red head, especially since she was so close to Tony and his gaggle of friends (nicknamed House of Stark and/or the House, as Darcy had eloquently named them after a binge session of _Game of Thrones_ ). Tony Stark has basically wanted Steve and Bucky's head on a stick since seventh grade and his friend's all seemed to follow his lead. Not that Steve could really blame Tony for how much he hated him.

"And, as usual, the House was being overly dramatic," Bucky said. Darcy pursued her lips and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Not to mention complete assholes," Darcy tacked on. Bucky reached up and lightly slapped his girlfriend's thigh but otherwise didn't comment on his girlfriend's use of curse words.

"Can't argue with that," Sam said. "And I wasn't even there." Darcy gave a smirk at the back-up and kicked Bucky's side lightly as if to say "see, he agrees with me".

"Luckily Natasha shut things down before Tony killed Steve," Wanda said, her book back in front of her face. Pietro picked up from where his sister left off and motioned to where Loki was sitting with a now very livid Anine.

"And, your call, Anine, was what stopped World War Three via the war between Loki and Thor," Pietro said. Anine's eyes bulged out of her head he looked at her boyfriend with concern and incredulity.

"You talked to Thor today?" Anne said, her voice no longer angry. Instead it was almost apologetic, and Steve knew that tone all too well, as did everyone in this room. It was the tone people used when they found out where they came from and what they had gone through. Even though none of them particularly liked it when people used the tone with them, they couldn't help but use it amongst each other. Not that it really bothered them all that much amongst each other. At least here they knew it was sincere.

"I wouldn't call me making a comment and him staring like the oaf that he is 'talking'," Loki said bitterly. "But yes, I did exchange words with my brother." The harsh note on which Loki used the word brother sent a serious hit towards the fun atmosphere that had enraptured the room when Steve had entered. "It was lucky you called, or else Thor might have done something foolish like attempt to start a fight. He never was very wise."

"You speak the truth," Simmons said, leaning forward onto her stomach and kicking her legs up in an x behind her. "I one time was stuck as his lab partner when I first moved here. You know he actually asked me if peanut butter was a meat once."

The harsh atmosphere broke somewhat as the group giggled at Simmons account of the infamously unintelligent blonde. Steve laughed too but saw that Anine and Loki weren't. They were having a soundless conversation that Steve saw so many couples have. Anine raised an eyebrow and Loki just shook his head. Steve looked away now and felt some sense of embarrassment at having witnessed it.

Loki and Anine (nor were Darcy and Bucky for that matter) were all that private when it came to affection, but Steve often felt awkward he witnessed such instances. The emotions surrounding the actions were so raw and important that he often felt like that it wasn't right to trespass on them by seeing how they showed it.

"That's nothing, one time a boy in my class asked me if _Supernatural_ was based on a real story," Sam said. Sam furrowed his brow and picked up a DVD case covered with Sam and Dean Winchester and looked at it critically for a moment.

"Yeah, you guys want to watch season 4 of _Supernatural_?" Sam asked, flipping around the case so the people in front of him could see the case.

"Why just season 4?" Fitz asked. Sam shrugged.

"It's the only season we have on DVD," Sam said simply. Steve smiled at the crazy memory of obtaining that copy of the television show. There was a blur of Black Friday, shouts from Bucky and FitzSimmons, and much cursing from that of Darcy.

"Which we have because I, your valiant hero, stepped up and braved the crowds of Black Friday," Darcy said, placing a hand on her chest dramatically. Bucky rolled his eyes and turned his neck to look up at her.

"If I remember correctly, didn't you beat a woman with a salami and cheese tray?" Bucky asked. Darcy huffed.

"It's the middle of Black Friday and you're going to go grocery shopping?!" Darcy said defensively. "And I didn't _beat_ her. More of just threw at it her. Several times." Bucky looked at her expectantly. "It's not like she bruised or anything!"

"You Americans are so violent," Fitz mused teasingly, looking up from where he was fiddling with Simmons's hair. Steve raised an eyebrow and leaned forward in his chair.

"MacBeth," Steve said simply. "All I'm goanna say." The Scot frowned at him but it came out looking more like a puppy trying to be upset but just made everyone think he was being adorable.

"Guys! Focus!" Sam pointed to the DVD case again with a frown. "Are we watching Sam and Dean kill things or not?"

"Who is killing what?" a light and cheery voice asked at the door. Everyone snapped up at the voice and smiled in the direction it came from.

Sarah Rogers stood in the frame, her graying blonde hair pulled loosely into a bun. A few laugh lines covered her face and a gentle smile painted onto her lips. Sarah held herself with her usual level of grace and class as she smiled at the group, her hands on her hips in a curious expression. She wore light blue scrubs from her job as a nurse. She had probably just had gotten home from work. Steve smiled at his mom and stood up.

"Sam and Dean Winchester are killing demons," Steve said. Sarah nodded once as if she didn't need more explanation which she probably didn't. Sarah had long since accepted the weirdness that were the teenagers that had she had basically adopted. She simply just rolled with it at this point.

"Ah. I'll be sure to invite them next time I need something killed." Sarah ran a hand through her hair. "I need some potatoes for dinner. If one of you would be so kind to go get some, it would be much appreciated." Fitz opened his mouth to volunteer, but Sarah raised a finger to silence him. "Someone that is not Leo. He has gone the past two times and plus he doesn't live here."

"I thought your rule was if they eat twice in your house a week that they are able to do chores and be punished by you," Bucky said. Sarah rolled her eyes.

"Thank you, Bucky, for volunteering to go get the potatoes," Sarah said. Bucky stared up at her in mock offense.

"Why me?"

"Because you talked back," Sarah said simply. She turned to Steve. "Take Steve with you. Between the two of you I'm sure you two can get some correct potatoes." Darcy laughed loudly. So loudly, in fact, that she almost fell out of her chair and onto the floor.

"Oh, savage, Mrs. Rogers!" Darcy bellowed. Bucky gave a small grumble of complaint but rose to his feet. Steve placed a quick kiss to his mom's cheek as a goodbye and hurried down to the front entrance.

"No stopping on the way!" Sarah called after them. "Be careful out in the rain!"

* * *

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Bucky said as they drove back from the supermarket. "In what world would a zebra beat a shark?" Steve rolled his eyes at his best friend and hugged the bag full of potatoes to his chest in the passenger seat.

"I can't believe you're still on this," Steve chided. "Didn't we stop talking about this like half an hour ago?"

"Because it is important, damnit," Bucky said. Darcy and Bucky seemed to be made for each other in the sense of that both loved to curse. Nearly every other word out of their mouths were curse words. When the two weren't making out that is.

"No, it's not, Bucky," Steve said.

"Yes, it is," Bucky countered. "It matters because Darcy is wrong and I'm right!"

"I think needing to be right is a sign that you two need couples counselling," Steve said with a raised eyebrow. Bucky rolled his eyes and signaled that he was turning left.

"Shut up Steven," Bucky shot back with a laugh. Steve smiled and turned to look out the window. Rain splattered across the clear window in loud droplets and Steve shivered as he felt the water on his sweater dry into a slight damp. The rain had been coming down since his art club meeting and didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.

A vague idea for a sketch began to appear in his head based on the rain when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was just a flash of red up ahead on the sidewalk at first before it expanded into the dim image of a person. Steve blinked several times to clear his vision and leaned forward to get a better look.

It turned out it was a person. A tall and slender person with short, curly red hair….one with stains on her gray sweater.

"Bucky, stop the car up ahead," Steve said. Bucky blinked several times and raised an eyebrow in question.

"What?" he asked and kept going.

"That's Natasha!" he said, pointing to her form. She was walking along the sidewalk, drenched in water and holding her arms around herself to stay warm and dry. Bucky sucked in a breath and hesitated his foot over the brake for a single moment. "Bucky, stop the truck!"

The truck careened into a sudden stop next to Natasha. The redhead turned in surprise at the screech it made and stared at the truck with wide eyes. Steve rolled down the window and the muffled sounds of the rain now become intense sounds of sudden slaps. He put his hand up over his eyes to shield them from the rain.

"Natasha!" he called, even though she had already turned to face him. He saw her face turn into a squint as she registered who they were.

"Steven?" she asked skeptically, as if not believing it was really them. "What are you doing outside? It's raining."

Well, no duh.

"That's what we were going to ask you," Steve sad, some of the rain blowing into the cab of the vehicle. Natasha eye's furrowed for a moment and he looked over Steve's shoulder, where Bucky was now sheepishly waving from the driver's seat.

"Hi," Bucky said, but it was so quiet Steve doubted Natasha heard him. Steve pointed into the backseat of the car over his shoulder.

"You look cold and wet. Do you need a ride?" Steve asked. Natasha shifted uncomfortably and didn't meet the blonde's eyes.

"No, I'm, uh, fine," she said, her tone contradicting otherwise. Steve frowned and opened his door, picking up the umbrella in the floorboard.

"What are you doing?" Bucky asked. "You are going to get soaking wet!"

Steve didn't answer and instead stepped onto the pavement. He opened the umbrella over his head and slammed the door behind him with a metallic thud. He hurried over to her and prayed that the harsh wind wouldn't blow the umbrella out of his hand.

"You don't look fine Natasha," Steve said as he came closer, noting that she was practically soaked. Natasha shrugged and looked away from Steve.

"I'll be fine, I promise," she said. "My parents are goanna be home any minute. I was just waiting for them to come unlock the door." Steve raised an eyebrow. Natasha was a sixteen-year-old girl. Didn't she have a key to her own home?

"Have you been waiting outside since after school let out?" Steve asked with concern. Natasha once again shifted uncomfortably, and Steve knew he was right. He felt a familiar sense of anger rise at Natasha's parents. He had seen far too much of this version of parenting in his opinion.

"Natasha, you can –"

She raised a hand to silence him and took one step back. "I'm goanna be fine, Steven. They'll be back at like any minute."

Natasha looked around the corner at the word parents, and Steve saw an unmistakable mix of dread and relief at not seeing someone come around the corner. He had seen that combination in the face of his friend's far too many times to ignore it, even though Natasha had done a pretty good job of keeping it hidden behind her deep brown eyes.

"Natasha, please, come back with us. You can dry off until your parents get back," his tone even and measured. He knew that if he could get Natasha back to the home of Sarah Rogers, he could get her to talk about whatever it was making her relieved not to see her parents when she was standing out in the soaking rain and they were ticket to getting inside a dry environment.

"I told you, Steven, I'll be fine," Natasha said, her voicing become more frustrated at every passing moment. "If this to repay me for what happened at lunch, just forget about it. It's already forgiven." Steve blinked several times at her words before finally processing what they meant. She thought this was just him attempting to repay a debt and not just trying to make sure she was okay.

"It's not that," he said quickly, shifting the umbrella into his left hand as his right hand clammed up. "I just want to make sure you're okay."

"And I already told you that I'm fine!" she said, her tone now dangerously close to a yell. Steve inwardly sighed once at the conversation. Natasha was not going to get in the truck, let alone come home with him and Bucky. Steve had found the unmovable object to his force but the look in her eyes told him that it was best if he simply just backed down.

"Okay," he said, his tone more forceful than he would have liked. But he had been trying to help her and she was rebuffing all offers of help. "At least take the umbrella." Natasha crossed her arms and took another step away from him.

"If I wanted an umbrella, don't you think I would have –"

"Take the umbrella, Natasha." _Because if I'm right about your family, they probably don't have one._

Natasha blinked several times in surprise at the force in his voice.

"I'm not leaving until you take the damn thing," he said. Natasha looked at him for a moment – contemplating both of their stubbornness – before she grumbled under her breath and took the lime green umbrella monstrosity out of Steve's hands lifted it above her head. The rain hit Steve full force and within thirty seconds, he was completely drenched as opposed to a light damp and wondered if forcing Natasha to come with him would be the best option here.

Before he could work on that plan, she mumbled a thank you and took off down the side-walk again at a brisk pace. She was out of ear-shot within moments and Steve almost jogged after her but decided against it.

He made his way back to the truck, where he found a slightly angered Bucky and a bag of potatoes on the floorboard. Steve sat in his former seat, water dripping onto the faux leather seats in heavy droplets. His mom was going to kill him over getting her tuck wet but now, his head was spinning so much he couldn't really process that.

"All that and she just left?" Bucky asked, not yet re-starting the engine. "Can you say –"

"I think she might need my mom's help," Steve said, and Bucky's eyes widened at his words, all former irritation forgotten.

"Are you sure?"

"Not all the way, but I picked up some hints."

Bucky sighed once and leaned back in his chair. "A member of the House of the Stark might need the help of the Mr. Rogers Club. Wonderful."

* * *

Currently, seven teenagers lived at Sarah Roger's house. One of course was her son, Steve, who was her pride and joy. The six others had mostly just come with time.

When Steve was five years old and she had been a widow for four, Steve had strolled in with a very bruised looking Bucky Barnes. Bucky had claimed that he was just very clumsy, but Sarah was a nurse and heard that claim by children nearly a hundred times. "I fell," they would say. "It's my fault."

Sarah had felt so much love for this boy the more he visited, every time painted with a new set of black and blue bruises. After six months of endless restless nights over this boy, she had finally gone to his house and found a lawn littered with beer cans and various other bottles of alcohol. It took almost no convincing to get them to give her custody and they had signed with no qualms, never once having come back to even check on him. Didn't matter anyway. Bucky was her son now anyway.

Next had come the infamous Loki Prince. Sarah had of course heard of the bastard son of the mayor Odin King but had assumed that he lived with his mother somewhere on the edge of town. When Steve and Bucky were nine years old, they had found Loki asleep in their tree house. Loki had quickly pleaded not to call the police when Sarah had come outside at the request of her son's, that he had only been looking for a place to sleep where it was dry.

Her heart had broken as she stared down at the helpless raven-haired boy, that she had immedailty ushered him inside and feed him and clothed him and loved him and become her third son.

Six months later, Steve had burst through the front door with a set of twins and told Sarah matter of factly that Wanda and Pietro had to live with them. And sure enough, they had had the same bruises Bucky had had when he was five years old. One tearful confession later and the two were her newest children.

One year after the twins, another set of siblings had been marched into her life by Steve. Anine and her little sister Darcy she first met while at work, the eleven and ten-year-old situated between the eleven-year-old Steve as he waited for his mother in the waiting area.

Steve explained quickly when Sarah took notice of them that he had saw for the past two weeks he had noticed that no one had come to pick them up after school and the two all ways wore the same clothes every day. Sarah had quickly learned the duo's parents were off somewhere all the time, never giving a damn about their daughters. It had been no thought at all to take the two children home with her.

Every time Steve had come home with a new runaway or someone who needed them, he had had the same impassioned look in his eye. That need to help them and that he was going to do everything in his power to fix it was reflected into a fire that burned deep in his eyes. Sarah always admired that fire and hoped he never lost it.

It was also unmistakable. So when Steve and Bucky came back with potatoes, Sarah had immedailty saw that light had been re-ignited. Sarah looked over their shoulder, hoping to find that whoever it was had been convinced to come back with them. Sarah found no such luck and turned back to the two, a frown on her lips.

"Mom," Steve said. "Someone might need our help. I'm not sure yet though."

"Who?" Sarah asked, the sound of the teens upstairs wafting down to the kitchen.

"Natasha Romanoff."

* * *

 _ **At Last I See The Light**_ **readers, I promise I have not forgotten about you! But I have some serious writing block and this story struck me with some major creativity. This is over 8,000 words - a monstrous amount for me, so you know my creative juices went into over-gear on this one.**

 **I hope you stick around, and please come along for the ride!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 –** **Clint Refuted**

Morning dawned early for the students of Lee Kirby High, waking all reluctant students with intense streams of sunlight and annoying alarm clocks. One of which was the very tired Clint Barton.

Clint yawned as his alarm went off for the third time (and his mom yelled to get up for the second time) and finally reached over to slap off the alarm clock. He snuck a glance at the time and saw that the clock read just past seven in the morning. School started at eight, but Clint was a pro at getting ready late. It was his superpower.

He quickly slipped on a pair of crumbled jeans from the carpet and brushed his teeth, the toothpaste still being hastily scrubbed as he bounded down the stairs. His mother put one finger to her mouth in a "shushing" motion as soon as he landed and pointed to the cell phone held up to her ear. Clint rolled his eyes at his work-a-holic mother and picked up a banana from the fruit bowl on the table.

His step-sister Kate scowled up at him from where he had reached over her, her dark eyes far more scornful than a eleven-year's old should be. He walked over to the kitchen sink and spit out the toothpaste and began to rinse. His mother made no comment on the action, being far too involved with her conversation on spreadsheets or some other bullshit like that.

Kate's scowl transitioned into a disgusted frown at Clint and she swirled her bowl of Froot Loops distastefully.

"That was disgusting," she said. Clint smiled at her and peeled the banana, taking a single bite out of it.

"Barney gone yet?" Clint asked, even though he knew the answer. Kate once again scowled at the mention of her oldest step-brother and Clint knew that his older brother had already blew his way through early this morning, most likely coming in to contact with their little sister.

"Thankfully," Kate murmured, and Clint couldn't help but agree with her. Barney was annoying at best and pretentious at worst. He thought he was some hot-shot because he went to a college out-of-state and had been parading around every time he came home like some kind of big-shot. Barney had come home for the Labor Day weekend (only God knew why) and had been far too eager to "help" Clint and Kate with school, re: telling them were doing all their work wrong. "Dad's gone too."

Clint nodded at the fact that David Bishop, his step-father, was gone and finished his banana in silence. David and Kate had been living with Clint and his mother for only six months so speaking with Kate was still hard to do, and Kate's put-off attitude wasn't helping much. He supposed that it would only get better with time.

By time it was time for Clint to leave the house, their mom still wasn't off the phone, so he merely just waved and hurried out of the door, his car keys in hand. Kate trailed after him with a reluctant frown, obviously very much not wanting to school and/or not wanting to ride with him. Just up the path, Clint could see the dark-haired Kamala coming up to their house, clearly absorbed with something on her phone.

Ditco Middle School was just down the street from Lee Kirby High, which meant that Clint had gotten roped into shuttling Kate and her best friend Kamala Khan to and from school every day. Not that he could really understand why – the street Kate and Kamala lived on was about two minutes by the way the crow flies. The only reason Clint drove to school was that he was his friend Natasha's – who lived a good fifteen minutes away – ride, but somewhere along the line Kate and Kamala had been invited to join them.

"Kamala!" Kate called, flagging down the dark-skinned girl. Kamala looked up and waved back.

"Morning Kate," Kamala said, her voice too perky for it being 7:10 in the morning. She gave a nod to Clint as an acknowledgment of his presence but didn't say anything else to him. "Did you see the trailer for _The Eternal Circus_ last night?"

Clint rolled his eyes at the young girl and climbed into the driver's seat of his car, Kate and Kamala slipping into the backseat whilst talking amongst themselves about something that Clint didn't understand. Kamala and Kate were always talking nerd stuff, day and night. Clint had learned more about so-called "fandom" culture than he had ever deemed necessary by listening to the two of them. Such discussions only got larger in frequency when Kamala's _Rebel Belle_ Tumblr fan blog had gone viral.

Clint managed to tune them out for the majority of the fifteen-minute ride to Natasha's house, excepting the occasional loud squeal from Kate or Kamala (usually Kamala). The dirty blonde stopped his car in front of the Romanoff residence with a scowl, taking in the put-together white house with a furrowed brow.

How could something so pretty hide something so terrible inside?

Clint made a move to get out of the truck and go knock on the door, but was beat to it by the door to the house opening. Natasha stepped out of the house, her bag slung over her shoulder and her head down. Clint could make out vague shouting coming from the inside but was too far away to hear the specifics. Natasha shut the door in a hurry and rushed to the car, a lime green umbrella clutched in her hand.

"Good morning," Clint said warily as Natasha slipped in beside him. Natasha carefully hid her left eye behind her thick curtain of red curls and didn't turn to face him.

"Morning," she said in reply. No one in the back seat made any sign that they noticed Natasha and just continued with their engrossed conversation. Clint motioned with his head to the umbrella in her hand as he once again started the car.

"What's with the umbrella?" he asked. Natasha looked down in surprise at the item in her hand, almost forgetting that she had it for a second.

"Oh, um, someone lent me it yesterday, wanted to return it today," Natasha said in a tone that clearly meant that she wasn't talking about it. Clint shrugged in response and snuck a glance at his best friend. She adjusted her curtain of hair and Clint saw the edge of her eye, and sucked in his breath when he saw the early formation of a bruise.

Ever since the end of high school, Natasha had gotten much more closed off. At first Clint had assumed it was because of the crazy rivalry thing her and her friends had been dragged into by the unofficial clique leader, Tony Stark. That she had been put under some kind of "no talking with the enemy" kind of thing. Not that she had had anything to worry about regarding Clint, he flew under the radar and wanted nothing to do with Tony Stark and his various other popular lackeys or Steve Rogers and his artsy friends.

But Clint had quickly figured it had nothing to do with Tony Stark or Steve Rogers and everything to do with Natasha's no-good mother Natalia. That narcissistic bitch was doing something to her, hurting her, and Clint had urged Natasha to go talk to someone – _anyone_ – about what was going on.

Every time, however, she had just shrugged him off. And every time, Clint had just let it go. There was only so much Clint could do. Natasha was going to have reach the point where she wanted help before he could truly help her. Because he couldn't prove that Natalia was flinging insults at Natasha every chance she got or that Natalia was starving Natasha.

He knows because he tried. And when the police showed up at the end of their freshmen year of high school, Natalia had pulled the caring mother act and Natasha had been too scared and in denial to admit anything.

But never had Natalia resorted to violence. And as far as Clint was concerned, Natasha being ready for help just went out the fucking window.

Clint pulled into the parking lot of Ditco Middle School in silence, the only sounds the chatter between Kamala and Kate as they sat oblivious to what was going on in the teen boy's head. Kate and Kamala slipped out of the backseat with hurried thanks and a slam of the door.

Clint watched them for a moment as they crossed over to where their other best friend, Michelle Jones, was standing with her nose in a book under a tree by the front entrance as he gathered what to say. He once again started the car and drove up the road to Lee Kirby High.

As the pulled in the parking lot and passed the sign out front announcing the food for lunch today, Natasha finally said something.

"Pizza?" she asked as she read the brightly lit sign. "I hope it's that –"

"How did you get the bruise, Nat?" Clint asked, his tone measured and angry. Natasha jumped at sudden anger in his voice and shifted in her seat.

"You saw it, didn't you?" Natasha said, looking away from him again.

"Of course, I did!" he exploded as they pulled into a parking space. Natasha cringed away, leaning against the metal car door for security. Clint took a deep breath upon realizing that this was probably not helping, yelling at her that is, and leaned back in his blue leather seat. "I swear if that bitch hit you –"

"I fell!" Natasha cut off half-heartedly. Clint raised an eyebrow at her.

"You fell? Really? That's the _best_ you could come up with? If you're going to lie to me about what happened to me Natasha, at least come up with a good lie!" Natasha crossed her arms over her chest defensibly and looked into his eyes, giving Clint a full look at the yellow and purple area around her eye. It was nasty all right, all swollen and an ugly shade of yellow mixed with an almost black purple shade.

"I'm _fine_ ," she insisted. Clint snorted.

"You are as sure as hell not fine," Clint said. "That bitch egg donor of yours just _beat_ you! That is not _fine!_ "

"It was _one time!"_ Natasha said in protest. "I deserved it anyway! I was talking back to her about leaving me in the rain and she lost her temper. I should have known better!" Natasha didn't look so sure of her own explanation as she said it, and Clint knew that she was trying to convince herself it was truth as well.

"No one has the right to hit you Natasha," Clint said gently, sidestepping the fact that Natasha had been left in the rain for later. He hoped the shift in his tone might shock her enough to let her guard down.

It appeared it didn't work because she merely scowled deeper at him and inched furtherer away from him.

"Regardless, it was just a one-time thing," Natasha said. "Let it go, Clint." With that, she opened the door to the car and stepped outside. She slammed the door behind her and didn't look back as she marched into the building.

Clint cut off the engine and leaned back into his seat with a sigh. What was he going to do? If he told anyone, he knew that Natalia would deny it and Natasha would back her up. Why wouldn't she listen to him? Why couldn't she see that what Natalia was doing to her wasn't okay? Why did every time he try to help it end in a screaming match like this?

Clint ignored as the tardy bell rang as he thought over the swirling thoughts in his brain. It's not like all that pressing a thing was happening in Study of Film that he needed to be expressly on time.

All he wanted to do was help Natasha, why did she insist on making it so difficult? He supposed that trust might have something to do with it but otherwise he was coming up with a blank.

He sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. He didn't have anything to pin it on Natalia all that she was doing. Not even close. And without a confession or any kind of indication from Natasha, the police and Social Services was never going to believe the word of an outsider. He would need more evidence.

 _Evidence._

He frowned and quickly pulled out a notebook from his backpack, writing down on the first empty page he found. He read over what he wrote several times and nodded to himself.

 _October 12_ _th_ _–_ _Natasha climbed into my car. Her left eye had a bruise. Claimed she deserved what her mom did to her._

He would write everything, document everything, catalog anything and everything that he could use to bring down the reign of terror Natalia Romanoff had over her daughter's life. Natasha would get out of this life, weather she liked it or night.

* * *

Natasha was fuming as she made her way into the school hallway. What right did Clint have to but into her business? She could take care of herself perfectly fine, thank you very much. She didn't need her pesky best friend to fix what wasn't broken. Natalia had been justifiably angry when Natasha had talked back to her about forgetting to pick her up from school yesterday, it had been completely understandable she had lost her temper.

"Natasha!" the perky voice of Janet van Dyne called out to her, the petite Junior rushing up to her with a smile. Janet van Dyne was the type of kid Natasha could only describe as Type A – way too perky, way too loud, and way too organized. Janet had made herself president of every club on campus since the day she arrived here, and it seemed she had no plans to give up her titles anytime soon.

"Oh, uh, hey Janet," Natasha greeted. Natasha and Janet weren't friends per say, but they weren't distant enough to be acquaintances either. Natasha and Janet had hung out briefly during the time Pepper and Tony had a two-month "break" during the summer, and Janet had dated Tony for about three weeks. They had also worked on a few school projects together, so Natasha felt obliged to at least answer her greeting. If she had been an acquaintance, Natasha most likely would have just ignored her.

Janet's smile transformed into one of shock as she came closer to the girl, and Natasha knew that her bruise was more noticeable than she had feared. Of course, Clint seeing it should have tipped her off.

"What happened to your eye?" Janet asked in concern. Natasha looked around nervously as she thought over an excuse. 'I fell' had failed spectacularly regarding being believed earlier so she had to come up with something new on the spot.

"I…uh…" The janitor passed, carrying a broom in hand, and a light bulb went off in Natasha's head. "I was sweeping up where I dropped something this morning and silly me accidently hit myself with the broom handle." Janet pursued her lips for a moment as she thought over Natasha's explanation, as if testing its believability, before she appeared to let it go. Natasha let out an inward sigh of relief as the brunette's face broke into a grin again.

"I actually wanted to ask you something," Janet said. Natasha nodded and began to walk towards her locker. Janet fell into step beside her, her yellow-tipped brown pig-tails bouncing behind her. Janet had died to very tips of her hair bright yellow to catch the attention on one then sophomore Hank Pym back in Freshmen year, but as usual, he hadn't noticed, but she had kept the hair despite.

"Fire away," Natasha said, unlocking the door to her scarlet locker as they arrived.

"Well, with Halloween just around the corner," Janet said, "I was wondering if you mind being a part of the committee for the Halloween dance?" Natasha blinked several times as she froze mid-pursuit of her math textbook.

"Me?" she asked. Her? Why would Janet ask her? Natasha had never shown a _ny_ interest in planning a school dance.

"Well, I mean, you did an amazing job planning the tour for the foreign exchange students last year and the party to welcome them," Janet explained. "I had assumed that maybe you were interested in that kind of thing."

Natasha had planned a tour and a party – as an extra credit project for her Spanish class. While she had had fun picking stuff out for them to do, she hadn't done it out of any altruistic motive to give someone a great experience. No, she had done it to make up for the Spanish quiz she had flunked a week earlier.

Natasha shut her locker door and turned to Janet with a (fake) apologetic frown.

"I'm so sorry, Janet," Natasha said, "but I'm really busy right now. I just don't have time to help put together a dance."

If Janet was upset by what Natasha just said, she gave no indication. Instead, Janet just smiled wider and waved off the thought of Natasha's help just as easily as she had just suggested it.

"It's all right," Janet said, her voice still having that way too perky quality. "I understand. Just text me if you change your mind! You do still have my number, right?" Truthfully, Natasha couldn't remember if she still had Janet's number but just nodded anyway.

"I'll text if you anything changes," Natasha insisted. _Unlikely it will._

Janet beamed at her and skipped off to her class, leaving Natasha standing there with a sickly-sweet smile that quickly transformed into a frown. The last thing Natasha had needed right now was to deal with Janet van Dyne's optimism so soon after dealing with the tornado that was her life. The thought of spending afternoon after afternoon with her, planning a school dance? Down right unbearable.

Natasha shrugged her bag higher from where it had been slipping and marched down the hallway. Despite the bruise, no one seemed to question her as she walked quickly amongst the throngs of people. Well, for others, it was throngs. For her, it was more a straight-shot, since kids seemed to move out of the way when she passed. Natasha gave off that kind of air to get out of her way – not to mention she was one of the most popular kids on campus.

She smiled to herself, she could handle her mom. She kept a firm but kind handle on Lee Kirby High School. So, what if her mom lost her temper every now and then? Everyone did. All that mattered was that here at Lee Kirby High, she was queen.

Right?

* * *

"Quite a shiner you got there, Natashlie," Tony said three hours later at Study Hall. Natasha looked up from her science textbook to see the raven-haired boy slip into the chair across from her. Natasha shut her book and looked at her friend with an unamused expression.

"Broom handle, I hit my face," she explained in a bored tone. Over the past few hours, it had slowly faded into a deep purple and bright navy concoction of colors that swelled around her left eye. Natasha had attempted to cover it up with make-up before second period, but had only made it look worse and had been forced to scrub it off.

Natasha looked over Tony's shoulder, where she expected Vision to be walking behind him. Tony, Vision, and Natasha all had Study Hall together – as it was a multi-grade class – and spent the allotted time mostly talking amongst themselves or reading. She frowned when she saw a lack of the dark-skinned Brit and turned to Tony.

"Where's Vision?" she asked.

"Got sick," Tony said. "His mom stopped by earlier to get his work. She saw me and asked if I knew Rodney, so I was like no, but than I learned Rodney was Vision's real name! Rodney! Can you believe it?"

Natasha failed to see what was so amusing about the name Rodney and rolled her eyes, re-opening her science textbook silently. Natasha had some studying to do for her chemistry lab next period (something she was – _bleh_ – going to have to work on with Loki) and needed to finalize the steps to creating a chemical compound formula.

The door to the classroom shut loudly, jolting from the science stupor Natasha had pulled herself back into. In the doorway stood a girl with a messy mop of blonde hair, a butterfly clip pulling some away from her brown eyes. The girl seemed to be decked with butterflies – her bag and shirt had quite a few butterflies to boast, but otherwise seemed uninteresting. She looked vaguely familiar as a member of the Study Hall, but otherwise Natasha couldn't recall all that much about her.

The girl slipped a piece of paper, most likely an excuse for being tardy, onto the teacher's desk. Miss Johnson – who normally taught Computer Science but had been roped into holding a study hall during her planning period – didn't even look up from where she was furiously typing on her computer. The tanned woman only gave a grunt response as acknowledgment.

The blonde clutched her bag tightly and began a march for the tables congregated in the back corner, but found all the seats taken. A nearby class had been relegated to close classrooms after the teacher had gotten sick and had been shoved in the back to do their mind-numbing deskwork. Natasha recalled a dim memory of the girl sitting in the back. She supposed that was where she usually sat.

She froze amongst the aisle of tables and began to scan the classroom for an empty spot, finding the only seats currently up for grabs was with Natasha and Tony. She looked a bit put out by this as she made her way over. Natasha looked over at Tony to find a glare directed her way.

She must be a member of Steve's circle of friends if Tony was reacting to her this way. Natasha had stopped attempting to keep up with the 'rival' clique that Tony kept tabs on with disgust. She had considered the whole exercise to be ridiculous – hence why she hadn't gone completely insane on Steve upon realizing it was him yesterday or when he stopped her in the rain. But Natasha knew how much Tony had been perturbed by whatever had gone down between him and Steve (and Bucky she assumed, given how much he seemed to hate him as well), and so whenever one of their friends was pointed out, she remained as distant as possible.

The girl slipped into the seat next to Natasha when she took notice of Tony's intense gaze, and looked back with her own meek stare. She brushed away some of her blonde looks and placed her bag on the ground with a dull _thud._

"Lewis," Tony greeted stiffly. Natasha crinkled her noise some at the name. Lewis? Who named their girl Lewis?

"Lewis?" she asked, looking at the girl. Lewis shook her head with a frown at the implication it was her first name.

"Lewis is my last name," she explained, her tone quiet but friendly enough. "My, uh, first name is Anine." She looked at Natasha critically for a moment. "You're Natasha Romanoff, right?"

Natasha was a bit put off by this. Natasha was after all the most popular Junior at the school. Why hadn't this girl recognized her? Natasha made a mental note to socialize a bit more.

"Yes," Natasha said, her tone stiff now as well. Anine took this in stride and stared at her for a moment. Natasha felt her insecurity about the bruise on her eye grow and she undid the hair behind her ear to cover up her left eye. Anine blinked suddenly and looked away, pulling a book out of her cloth yellow bag.

Natasha felt some ire grow at Anine for staring at her bruise. What right did this girl have to be looking at her bruise? It wasn't a fucking prize or anything. Natasha didn't say anything however and just let the girl turn to her book, making out a girl in a blue dress on the cover.

The rest of the class passed in relative silence. Well, amongst the three of them that was, as the other members of the class were currently talking loudly in voices that could only be described as cacophonic and a cross between a meat-grinder and a wood chipper. The only sound amongst the three of them were the turning of pages and the occasional shift in the blue plastic chairs. And of course, the intensity of Tony's stare, which Natasha was almost able to hear.

"Hey," Natasha said suddenly a few minutes before the bell rung. Both of her table companions looked up at her with a start. Natasha reached down and grabbed the lime green umbrella from the side of her bag.

"You're friends with Steve Rogers, right?" Natasha asked. Anine nodded and put her book down on the table.

"Oh, um, yeah," Anine said. Natasha pulled the umbrella up so the girl could see.

"If you're going to see him this afternoon, could you please return this to him?" Natasha asked. At Tony's look, Natasha added, "He saw me out in the rain and let me have it yesterday."

"Oh, yeah. He told us about that when he got home last night," Anine said. She reached over and took the umbrella from Natasha and placed in the side-pocket of her bag. "I'll give it to him after school."

Something about the way Anine said 'home' struck Natasha as odd – as if the home was one she and Steve both lived in. As far as Natasha knew, Steve didn't have siblings or cousins that lived with him. But then again, she didn't really know him all that well, so she shouldn't have been so surprised.

"Thank you," Natasha finally settled on saying, which Anine returned with a polite nod. Anine slid her bag over her shoulder in time with the bell ringing and made a quick line for the door. Natasha reached to pick up her own bag and Tony matcher her step as she made her way to the hallway.

"What was that?" he asked, eyebrow raised and eyes in the direction the blonde went. Natasha shrugged and hugged her science textbook to her chest.

"She knows Steve, she can return it, instead of me lugging around that umbrella all day," Natasha said as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"That's another thing – why did you take an umbrella from the enemy?" Tony asked. Natasha rolled her eyes, thinking that Tony couldn't possibly be this serious about this whole feud thing, but one look at his grave expression cut short the laugh that was rising in her throat. Damn, maybe Barnes had been spot on yesterday with his comparison to the Socs.

"The enemy?" Natasha asked with a scoff. "Tony, seriously?"

Tony's eyes narrowed, and a glint of anger showed in his brown eyes.

"Steve Rogers can not be trusted, Natasha," he said with complete sincerity. Natasha did know that – Tony had been repeating that mantra since he was in Seventh Grade (before he skipped two grades) and declared Steve to be an "untrustworthy pain in the ass", if she remembered the exact wording correctly.

"He probably just wanted to be even with me," Natasha assured. "He found me walking home in the rain and gave me the umbrella, so I would forgive him for dropping his lunch on me." Tony's expression changed to one of confusion as his eyebrows furrowed together into a 'v' shape.

"Why were you walking home yesterday?" Tony asked. "Doesn't you friend – what's his name? Clint, right? Whatever. – drive you home?"

"He had archery club," Natasha said, which wasn't a lie. Clint had had archery club – of course, he would have been late if he had needed to take Natasha home, but Natasha had fibbed and said that she had had a ride. A small part of her had hoped her mom would heed her text and take her home, but she had either ignored it or not read it.

"Why didn't you ask one of us? We would have taken you home," Tony said, and Natasha had had no doubt that any one of them would have. Her friends might be vindictive to one Steve Rogers and his friends, but when came to each other they would give the shirt off their backs. But then she would have had to explain why she couldn't get in when her mom wasn't home yesterday, as opposed to Clint who would have just taken her to his house with no question.

"Phone died," she fibbed. Natasha caught sight of Pepper out of the corner of her eye and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey, why don't you go say hi to Pepper before you're late to class?" Natasha asked. Tony appeared to look at her for a few moments before he relented and went in the direction his girlfriend was. Natasha smiled and made her way to Chemistry, mentally preparing herself for the round of questions from Jane and Maria she was bound to get the second she stepped in the door.

* * *

" _Impossible comes true! Intoxicating you…."_

Steve looked up from his sketch to see Anine walking through the door, headphones in her ears and probably blaring music as high as it was medically safe. Anine had had Treble Tones (the school's show choir) practice after school today and had been subjected to the same fate as Steve yesterday, except this time her walk had been in sunshine. She didn't notice him at first and continued her song as Steve watched his surrogate sister with a smile.

" _This is where you wanna be! It's everything you ever want, it's everything you ever need!"_ she sang with an indulgent smile. Steve didn't mind the interruption all that much, Anine had rather great voice and it always made their family happy whenever they heard it. Darcy swore up and down that one day her older sister would be on the radio and Steve couldn't help but agree. Anine had a real shot if she wanted to be a professional singer.

Anine caught of Steve watching her and smiled at him, stopping mid-lyric. Not bothering with pausing her music she took out her earbuds and walked over to where he sat on their couch, taking a seat at the end across from him. She dropped her bag in front of her on the floor, the side leaning against the leg of the coffee table.

"Hey Steve," Anine said. Steve shut his sketch book and smiled back at her.

"Hey Anine," Steve said in return. "How was Treble's practice?"

"Okay I guess," Anine said with a shrug. "Liz Allen is shaping up to me a promising member of the group." Anine had talked briefly about the freshmen member of the group during auditions at the beginning of the year, and had been worried that the young girl was going to take her spot. That obviously had turned out to be untrue, as there were enough spots to include Anine and Liz.

"That's great," Steve said. Anine noticed the quiet in the room and looked around the empty room with a frown.

"Where is everybody?" Anine asked.

"Bucky and Darcy are off at the movies, Wanda and Loki dragged Pietro to the library for some kind of book signing, FitzSimmons are doing an experiment, and Sam had to help his Granma clean out her attic," Steve listed easily.

"Oh, yeah, the book signing," Anine said, a silent epiphany showing on her face. "Loki told me about that." Anine's face then scrunched up into curiosity. "So, everyone's gone?"

"Yep," Steve said.

"Hmmm…" Anine said, a frown pulling at her lips. She seemed to contemplate something before shaking her head. Steve raised his eyebrow at her. Anine was always a bit peculiar and contemplating something or another, so this didn't bother Steve all that much, but it still piqued his curiosity every time.

"Anine?" he asked. Anine reached down to her bag and pulled the lime green umbrella out from the inside (causing Steve to wonder how she fit in there) and placed it on the coffee table. Steve furrowed his brows at her brow and looked between the item and the blonde in front of him.

"I gave that to Natasha yesterday," Steve said simply.

"She gave it to me to give back to you," Anine said in return. "You said yesterday that she seemed a bit off when she was in the rain. Like she was afraid."

"Yeah, she was," Steve said, leaning forward in his seat. Anine bit her lip.

"Something was definitely up with her today," Anine said. "I had to seat next to her in study hall today, and she got upset when I looked at the bruise on her face – which you know is understandable, because I was probably staring at her – but still, it was weird."

Steve remained quiet for several moments. Natasha had been acting strange yesterday when he gave her the umbrella, and then she came to school with a bruise today? Steve automatically knew that this wasn't damning evidence against whatever family Natasha had, but the pieces seemed a little bit more than circumstantial. Something most definitely was going on with Natasha – but if that was just bad luck of falling and forgetting a key or something much more sinister was the question.

* * *

 **Review Replies:**

 **Guest: Thanks for your kind words! I was really nervous about the first chapter, glad to know people liked it.**

 **mpwhispers: Perdone mi español, tomé francés en la escuela no español. Pero gracias por la revision, hizo que mi día.**


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